For travellers, expats and geeks there’s an essential tool which can transform your internet experience. It’s a simple tool which allows you to perform one important function – the ability to control your IP address.

A little background, the IP (Internet Protocol) address is the ‘unique’ network number which is assigned to your device when you connect to the internet. It doesn’t matter if it’s a computer, laptop, tablet, smart TV or even an internet enabled fridge! Every device which access the internet does so through this network identification number.

This is fine, it’s how the internet works after all. This IP address is assigned through whatever service you connect to the internet through – be it an home based ISP, office network, hotel Wifi or maybe your local coffee shop. The address is assigned automatically and enables data to be delivered to your device when you’re connected.

The problem is that this address is completely out of your control, even if you are connecting from home you have no way of directly controlling it. Now this wouldn’t have been a problem in the internet of a decade ago, however nowadays it’s a real issue. Not only are numerous entities logging, monitoring and analysing your web activity – many web sites are actually controlling what you can do online too.

Relaxing with the Zombie Apocalypse

So as I sat down in a rather boring hotel, based on the outskirts of a Dutch Industrial estate last week to enjoy the latest episodes of Z Nation I had something of a surprise! When I fired up my Netflix account on my trusty Samsung laptop I noticed something strange – lots of foreign language shows (in languages I couldn’t understand). Worst still they only had the first series of Z Nation which I’d finished watching about two years ago!!

You see I was being connected to the Dutch version of Netflix. Now when you visit a foreign country, you of course don’t expect them to switch all the TV and radio stations over to suit a US visitor. But this is my Netflix account, on my computer, paid for on a US credit card. Why should I suddenly want to watch the Netherland’s version of the entertainment channel !! I can’t understand half of it anyway.

Surely it’s better to link the user with his home version of Netflix, unless they specify otherwise. Unfortunately that’s not the case, the version of Netflix you receive is linked to the IP address that you connect to. So a American Netflix user who travels a lot is going to get flung around the versions of the world when all he wants to watch is some home grown US Zombie action !

IP Address American Netflix

Which brings me back to my original point, you’re completely at the mercy of these websites unless you are able to control your IP address. Now as stated earlier, it’s impossible to actually change this IP address but you can hide it and display a different one. So although I am always going to connect through a Dutch ISP when in Holland, I can connect through a server in the US and appear to have a US IP address for American Netflix. The methods for doing this have changed over the last few years, unfortunately you can’t use things like US DNS servers or find some UK Netflix DNS code anymore – all these methods are now blocked. So how can you access American Netflix -well here’s how it’s done –

You use a tool to connect through to a network of VPN servers based around the world. So when you visit Netflix for example, then it will only see the IP address of the server you are connecting from. If you select a US server then you will be presented with American Netflix, switch to a Japanese one and you’ll get their version. You can effectively control what you can access.

It also works well for accessing websites which are simply blocked, for example AMC, NBC, ABC and Hulu are not accessible without a US IP address. If you don’t use a VPN you’re going to be restricted to the websites in your current location certainly with regards to media sites.

The VPN also gives you a higher level of security and privacy, when you are connected all your browsing is private and the connection is encrypted so no personal details can be intercepted.

Truthfully there are tons of these services out there, and it can be difficult to decide which one to use. Our personal recommendation is a service called Identity Cloaker – it offers fast access to servers all over the world and is not expensive. It also doesn’t try to lock you into long subscriptions which are difficult to cancel just use and let it expire when you’ve finished.

There was a time when the word ‘proxy’ was used little outside the geeky chat of an IT department. The first primary use of a proxy server was too control access to the internet in corporate and education networks. By enforcing the proxy as the only access to the internet, networks could be secured and web activity logged and controlled if necessary. Basically only one computer would be allowed access to the world wide web and that would be the proxy server itself.

Times have changed and now proxies represent something other that restrictions, people look for US proxy buy options for a variety of reasons. One ironically is that of try to maintain some privacy, the internet has become much more pervasive but there’s never been that much privacy. The average internet user is probably unaware that every file they download, every image the view or move they watch is recorded and logged at their ISP. Your internet history is very far from a secret and is equally coveted by the state and big business for different reasons.

So how does buying a US proxy help matters with regards to privacy. A well configured proxy or better still a VPN service will do three things with regards online privacy. Firstly it will hide all record of your activity at your ISP. Secondly (although this is normally only a VPN) your data can be encrypted to keep personal details and things like logon credentials secure. Finally it hides your location from the websites you visit, stopping them logging and recording your activity as well.

The use of a secure VPN when browsing the web, certainly improves your security. However there is another important aspect to consider which people should consider – region locking. This is the practice where a web site will attempt to control who gets access to a certain site or content. It’s particularly common in media and TV sites who block access to surfers who are not from a particular country. This is why you’ll find people asking for a US proxy buy, for the simple reason that a US based proxy or VPN will allow you to watch US sites like Netflix, Hulu and NBC irrespective of your location. Ever tried using your Pandora account outside the USA, well it won’t work.

There are a myriad of reasons websites block access to people outside their domestic market. Online banking is often restricted due to the risk of digital fraud, yet ironically it’s travellers who need the service more. Companies like US Netflix restrict based to copyright laws, digital content needs to be licensed in individual countries which obviously can be expensive. Others simply want to charge different prices based on someone’s physical location – a common profit maximization technique.

So these are the fundamental reasons, a desire for an element of privacy online and the ability to control what you can access online. It might be trivial to want to access ABC or the US version of Netflix whilst out of the country – yet for many it’s a real lifeline to their homelife. It’s ironic that in an age where we are all expanding our boundaries and travelling more that the internet is starting to put up more blocks in the form of these region locks. Buying your own high quality US Proxy or better still VPN service does mean that these restrictions are lifted when you’re online. Our recommendation is a service called Identity Cloaker – it gives you access to a secure, encrypted connection to a range of servers across the world – no need to buy a US proxy or a UK one.

Many people use proxies to bypass internet filters and regional restrictions. For example YouTube videos are often restricted to specific countries and it’s quite common to get the message – ‘not available in your country’. However these are enforced by looking up your IP address and if you use a proxy you can effectively bypass these blocks. They work because if you use proxy servers and connect through them, it’s the address of the server which is identified not your real address. So if you use a US proxy you can access US only sites, use a UK server for British web sites and so on. Well this is how it used to work, invest a few pennies to buy a cheap proxy or scrape a cheap proxy list and you were sorted. These days have long gone now because of technical implementations in detecting these servers.

Unfortunately most of the websites that operate these region blocks can detect the use of proxies and they are mostly blocked. Even if you use a high quality US proxy server, you won’t be able to access sites like Netflix or Hulu without receiving these sort of messages –

The usefulness of a proxy server is fairly limited now with more and more sites automatically blocking access from them. There are some issues with this, particularly people who surf through corporate networks for example. Most firms use proxies in order to control access to the internet and limit security problems, so when Hulu blocks access through proxies it’s actually affecting this group as well.

Ensure the High Quality US Proxy Server Has a VPN Mode

If you want to bypass all the region locks and completely remove all of the restrictions on your internet connection then it’s a VPN service you should be using. A VPN is a Virtual private network and operates in a similar way to a proxy server however the connection is encrypted and almost impossible to identify. Even the highest quality proxy server can be detected however there is currently no method for actively identifying an incoming connection from a VPN server.

However, you have to be careful even when selecting a VPN service to use – some of the media companies have started to manually block these services too. What they do is identify IP address ranges and companies who advertise the ability to bypass these blocks and ensure they can’t access the services. Hulu and Netflix have been particularly aggressive in doing this and even some of the UK TV channels like the BBC blocking abroad as well.

In addition there are other measures being used to block connections originating from VPN servers too. The BBC have recently extended their restrictions to include too many concurrent connections from the same IP addresses. For example if you use a very popular VPN service, like Hide my ASS then you’ll be sharing your IP address with many thousands of users. These are easy to detect and simple to block, it doesn’t actually matter how well they are configured if too many people are using them a VPN will be blocked as easily as cheap private proxies. The threshold is difficult to assess and you don’t need to use completely dedicated proxies as long as they are not overloaded.

As you can tell, there are no guarantees on maintaining access to any particular service. Currently Netflix and Hulu are probably the most aggressive in blocking access from VPN enabled services but many still work. You should ensure that your chosen VPN provider is not advertising the ability to watch particular stations. These are always targeted by the media sites, even years ago a private proxy server which promoted access to online TV stations would never last long – nowadays their servers will be blocked very quickly indeed.

Otherwise it really depends on which websites are a priority for you. For example, as mentioned Netflix are one of the most aggressive companies in blocking access and even the best private proxies or VPN servers will be ineffective. This is because in addition to other restrictions they also limit access to IP addresses classified as residential. Unfortunately this instantly rules out 99% of VPN providers who usually are based in commercial data centers which have commercially classified IP ranges. Try and connect to the US version of Netflix from a commercial IP address and you’ll get blocked instantly. It doesn’t matter how well they are configured as even the high quality US proxy services won’t work if they’re tagged with commercial addresses. Some of the more advanced security companies like . have some residential IP address ranges but these are very difficult to obtain for use by commercial companies.

If you want to use a particular service then it’s best to test the functionality first before subscribing for a longer period. There are still VPN services which work with most of the media sites, however some are more difficult than others. Accessing the US version of Netflix is probably the hardest as they only allow a specific category of IP addresses through their firewalls.

The reality is that without having some sort of control of your connection and IP address you will be constantly blocked, filtered and monitored whenever you are online. For those of us who travel it’s even more inconvenient as websites we normally access are suddenly unavailable due to a new location. Being able to hide your address stops all this and hands back control.

Only a couple of years ago there were many options for bypassing the extending region locks that most media sites were using. The internet has been getting more frustrating to use with blocks, bans and ‘not available in your country’ messages appearing every time you try and visit a new site or watch a movie online. It’s pretty bad for a US based surfer but can imagine it’s even more frustrating for people surfing from a smaller country. Netflix has been one of the most aggressive in this area, using very advanced techniques to restrict access from it’s paying subscribers !

Netflix wants to keep French Netflix users using the French Netflix, Canadians using the Canadian version and so on. One of the simplest methods of bypassing these blocks available was a American Netflix DNS solution which previously worked very well. This simply involved pointing whichever device you used to watch Netflix at a specially configured DNS server. This would quietly reroute your initial connection to make it appear you where in a different country to allow you to unblock US Netflix, it worked perfectly and was easy to configure on things like media boxes, phones and tablets.

Unfortunately when Netflix targeted the VPN services, it also obliterated the Netflix DNS options too. Netflix blocked all connections which originated from commercial servers, which included all the Smart DNS solution servers too. In fact it wasn’t really the method which was the problem more the origin of the VPN and US DNS servers.

Instead of trying to detect concurrent users or the presence of the VPN/Proxies, Smart DNS Netflix instead just looked at the classification of the IP address which was connecting. If that IP wasn’t classified as a residential one it would get blocked instantly. So there was no US or UK DNS code that would make a difference unless the server involved was registered as a ‘home user’. Of course none of them where, all these solutions originate from vast commercial data centers – where all the servers are classified as ‘commercial’.

The only option that survived initially were the ‘free solutions’ like Hola which shared your internet bandwidth. You’d get a residential connection through these, but you’d also get umpteen unknown people surfing hard core porn through your registered address too. Using these on your own connection or computer was madness so it looked like Netflix has won.

So No American Netflix DNS Solution Left ?

Fortunately both the VPN services and the Smart DNS providers have started to come up with solutions. Residential IP addresses to allow access to the Netflix network are not easy to get for commercial providers. Some companies have managed to get them and establish a residential server network to facilitate access to Netflix. IDC was the first company to provide a working Netflix VPN and now there’s a Smart DNS Provider too.

The company is called Unblock and is a Canadian company who specialise in Smart DNS solutions. They have actually integrated residential addresses across their networks so you can access all sorts of versions of Netflix. The few VPN providers who now support Netflix access will normally only work with UK and US versions of the site.

Smart DNS is definitely not as secure as using a VPN and may be vulnerable to other detection techniques but at the time of writing the Unblock US solution is working well. So if you’re looking for a working American Netflix DNS solution at the moment it’s your only real option.

At the moment there’s a free trial of the only viable Smart DNS solution available here –FREE Trial of Unblock Here

It was in 2015 that Netflix expanded it’s network onto a truly global platform, adding over 150 countries to it’s reach. Your Netflix account could be used in just about every developed country in the world with only a few exceptions like North Korea and Iran. However although it could be argued that a Netflix account was global that didn’t mean you had complete control over the programmes that you were able to watch.

The main problem people who travel a lot have with their Netflix accounts is that what they can see is largely determined by their physical location. For example if you take out a Netflix subscription in the US and then travel to France, when you sign on to your account you will see the French version of Netflix not the US one. Of course, the French version of Netflix is very different to the US version and obviously contains more French and European content. If you’re a fluent French speaker this might not be a problem, but if you’re half way through a US only boxed set only available in the USA then it might just be.

The reality is that the US version of Netflix has far and away the largest range of content available. In fact compared to some smaller countries you’ll find literally thousands more movies, TV series and documentaries. All this disappears as soon as you travel outside the geographical borders of the United States. Cross over to Canada for example and the same thing will happen, when you log onto Netflix you’ll be redirected to the Canadian version of the site.

So Can I Watch US Netflix in Canada in 2017?

Actually there is a way to control which version of Netflix you see as you can see in the following video:

Simply by using a VPN server to hide your real location, you can actually access the US version of Netflix from Canada or anywhere else for that matter. In fact many people will open a Netflix account in Europe and then only ever watch the US version. You can’t blame them, when you see the amount of movies on the US version of Netflix compared to other countries you’ll be amazed.

For instance, I love the Zombie apocalypse program Z Nation which is available on Netflix. However whenever I check in most European countries there’s only a single series. Whereas on the US version of Netflix you can find four series available for streaming or downloading. This is quite common, you’ll often find that the non-US versions of Netflix are several series behind on many popular shows.

The only time these restrictions are lifted is with content produced directly by Netflix because they own the copyright and distribution rights. So as their model switches more towards Netflix produced movies and shows then this will be slightly less of an issue. However until then if you want to watch the best version and access US Netflix in Canada or any other country in 2017 then you should check out a VPN service.

There are of course few sources of entertainment quite as popular as the media company – Netflix. It’s name has become synonymous with streaming video and entertainment, in fact in some demographics Netflix is becoming a verb. To Netflix, or ‘I just Netflix’d all night’ means that you simply chilled in front of the TV (or PC, laptop or phone) and relaxed. You’re never alone with a Netflix account although if you’ve ever travelled and tried to use it you’ve probably been somewhat shocked.

The reason is that although your Netflix account is meant to be a global one, what you can access is very dependent on your location. So if you’re an American travelling in say Japan and you login to your Netflix account – you’ll be greeted by the Japanese version of the media site. For some people it’s a pleasant surprise and you may find yourself with lots of new movies and TV shows, but generally for a US account holder it’s invariably a disappointment. Simply put, the American version of Netflix is way better than any other and it’s likely you’ll end up missing a lot of your favorite shows when logging in to another country’s variant.

How to Change Netflix Country 2017

So what do you do if you’re stranded away from your preferred version of Netflix? Can you switch back to your favorite or are you stranded? Well fortunately there is a solution to change netflix country although it’s not quite as straight forward as it used to be.

Up until last year, you could easily just use something like a proxy or VPN server to switch to whatever version of Netflix you wanted. Literally millions of people did this and it basically meant you bounced you internet connection off a server in the country you wanted to pretend to be in. So if I sat in Japan and connected to a US based VPN server before I logged into Netflix, it would think I was in the US and I’d get the American version again.

Netflix’s Dastardly Plan

Here’s the problem though, last year Netflix decided that it wouldn’t allow this and came up with a fairly dastardly plan to block people doing this. Suddenly many people found their Netflix VPN not working and received only an error message. What the company did basically decimated all the VPN/TV watching services over night – they blocked access to anyone who didn’t have a residential IP address. This unfortunately included 99% of all the addresses allocated to the servers and virtually all Netflix VPN 2017 servers stopped working with Netflix.

A huge industry of bypassing the Netflix blocks and filters almost vanished overnight. It even blocked people who lived in countries where Netflix wasn’t deployed yet which was even worse because they lost access completely not just locked into their countries version.

Here’s the message you then got when you after the Netflix VPN ban started –

So can I use my Netflix account overseas?

Yes, fortunately the internet normally provides workarounds fairly quickly and now there are a few VPN services which will allow access to US Netflix again. Here’s how to watch Netflix from other countries – just look for a specialist VPN service.

What they have had to do is buy up residential IP addresses to fool Netflix which will only allow these addresses through their filters. There are only a couple of companies how have managed to do this, simply because these addresses are normally only assigned by Internet service providers and can be difficult to find. So if you’re looking for a way to change Netflix country make sure you check or test this works before buying any long term subscription. Lots of companies have conveniently forgot to update their websites and many still claim they work with Netflix still but they don’t

Our friends at Identity Cloaker have upgraded their Network to include residential IP addresses but currently only support US and UK Netflix access – try out their trialto check for yourself. It’s all been working for nearly a year though so it should be fine. If you know of any others please post a comment to let others know.

Many of the internet’s biggest media sites operate a system of region locking. The BBC iPlayer for example blocks access to anyone outside the UK, similarly the US website Hulu blocks access to anyone located outside the USA. Virtually all the media web sites do this, including video sites like Youtube which controls what videos can be seen depending on your location. Fortunately there is a way around this, and millions of people across the world use VPNs to hide their physical locations.

These work by obscuring your real IP address by redirecting your connection through the VPN server. If the VPN is located in the correct country then you’ll be allowed access, so people would use a UK VPN to watch the BBC online and a US server to watch American content. Most of the web sites try to block access from these VPN servers however none have been very successful, except for one company – Netflix.

Here’s How Netflix Block VPN Programs

Most of the previous methods for blocking VPNs and proxies simply involve detecting and blacklisting the IP addresses of individual VPN servers. This works to some extent but is relatively simple for the VPN providers to bypass. When specific IP addresses are blocked they would simply replace them with alternatives, it ends up something of a cat and mouse game with the web providers. Many companies such as the BBC do this periodically so the blocks are normally fairly intermittent.

Mostly though people were unaffected, most of the decent VPN services have many servers which they rotated IP addresses when unaffected. Netflix however adopted another tactic, which proved to be more effective. What they did was instead of blocking individual IP addresses of VPN servers, they blocked a whole classification – commercial based addresses.

All IP addresses are classified into two types – residential and commercial. Residential IP addresses are allocated to domestic customers via their ISPs well companies and data centres receive commercial addresses instead. Netflix solution worked instantly by blocking access to all commercial addresses, the region locking was enforced and none of the VPN services worked.

Currently there are only a couple of VPN services which still work, these have managed to incorporate residential addresses into their network. One of the oldest companies, Identity Cloaker has built this capability into it’s software so that if anyone tries to connect to Netflix they will automatically be redirected to a server assigned with a residential IP address range. It works perfectly although these addresses are expensive and difficult to obtain so you should check if you require them as most VPN services won’t have access to them.

We’ve covered a lot about the Netflix ban on VPNs and proxies on this site and how slowly it’s being circumvented. There are now a couple of VPNs that allow you to switch between the different version of Netflix irrespective of your location. Which for expats or people who travel a lot is incredibly useful, and means you can choose Netflix region free without being forceably routed to your local version. However there has been one thing missing, up until now no-one has released a Smart DNS system which will work with the new Netflix blocks.

Smart DNS is a relatively new technology which instead of routing your entire internet connection simply routes specific parts when you try and access region locked sites by using specially configured DNS server. For instance if you are in the US and tried to access the BBC iPlayer, the Smart DNS server would route part of your connection through a UK server in order to bypass the UK only region locks. It works very well and because all you need to do is change your DNS server settings is simpler to use on different devices than a VPN.

Here’s what you do on a Windows client, simply change your DNS servers to the Smart DNS server and if you have an active subscription you’ll be able to bypass most region blocks. That’s all you need to do and you could implement in the same way on any media device, smart TV, games console or phone as long as you could specify the DNS servers.

So Which Smart DNS Still Works with Netflix ?

Except unfortunately Smart DNS Netflix was another casualty of the Netflix purge on region locking bypasses and so not only did most Netflix VPN not working the same happened to proxies and DNS servers . If you used one of these Smart DNS servers you would receive exactly the same error message as you would with a proxy as soon as you tried streaming anything. Most of the providers have given up trying to support Netflix, however finally I have found one provider who has fixed the problem and released a Smart DNS solution that works with Netflix!

It’s from a company who I haven’t used for a while but I know has been a Smart DNS/VPN solution provider for many years. The company is called Unblock-US and after a tip off that they were the first to create a DNS based solution that allows you to bypass the Netflix blocks I checked it out this week.

The setup screen is very simple to use – here it is

You basically sign up for an account, change your DNS servers and then select the version of Netflix you require. That’s all there is to it and then you visit Netflix you’ll be redirected to the region you selected. Of course most people will choose the US version which has more content than any other. However it’s useful to have access to the other locations as well because there are certain titles only available on certain regions. Netflix Canada for example has some great documentaries which are not available on any other regions.

I tried the US, Canadian and UK versions and all streamed perfectly. There is also a setting to disable which means you will go to the Netflix locale that you’re actually located in – which is useful for people who just want to use it when they are travelling. So if you’re still wondering which Smart DNS still works with Netflix then look no further….

If you’re quick Unblock-Us even has a free trial at the moment so you can test it out a real Free Smart DNS Netflix solution. You can access the trial through the link below.

It was always quite an anomaly, for several years before Netflix was actually available in Australia – there were over a quarter of a million registered users there. If you tried to access any version of Netflix there, you’d be blocked and told that it wasn’t available there yet. So how come there were hundreds of thousands of Aussie subscribers? Well the simple fact was that all these people got fed up of waiting for Netflix and simply used one of the better VPN services usually located in the USA.

The idea was, you start your VPN service first and connect through to a US based VPN server and then you’d be able to access the US version of Netflix using your subscriber account. Of course, Netflix knew about this – suddenly hundreds of thousands of accounts were created using Aussie based bank accounts and credit cards – but they still paid for the service so nobody really minded much. The same trick was used by millions across the world – either to access Netflix from somewhere it wasn’t launched in or to access a different locale version – until the Netflix VPN ban hit the world, when they banned all VPNs from everywhere!

The Netflix VPN Ban – Why and How?

So why did Netflix take such a draconian measure after all people weren’t stealing the service, they still paid for a valid subscription simply accessed from another country? The problem lies with the ways that licensing works, all the non-Netflix movies, TV shows and documentaries are individually licensed on a per country basis. So Netflix may have the license to broadcast a particular movie in the US but not in Europe so they have to segregate their services.

Unfortunately this means that the smaller countries often have vastly inferior versions of Netflix despite the subscription being the same worldwide. The companies who own the broadcast rights got fed up with people in different countries simply using a VPN or proxy to bypass these licensing issues and put some pretty heavy pressure on Netflix to block access.

This they have done, now nearly every VPN and proxy service has been blocked from accessing the Netflix service. They instigated a global block on accessing their servers using commercial IP addresses which included 99.9% of all the VPN services – suddenly everyone had to go back to their own regional version of Netflix. Which was ok if you are in the US which has a fantastic selection but not so much if you were perhaps an ex-pat accessing from a small European country.

The Netflix VPN ban on these services was incredibly effective and perhaps shows a model for region locking which other companies may follow. Previously people like the BBC had tried to block VPN services by individually identifying their IP addresses but it never worked for long as they simply be swapped out.

There are still some of the better VPN service which are still working, a small selection of VPN companies like IDC have implemented servers with residential IP addresses to bypass the Netflix VPN block. You can also read about another firm which has managed to get a Smart DNS Netflix solution working too.

Most though have simply given up as these addresses are much more expensive and harder to obtain unless you are a registered ISP. So if you want to access a different version of Netflix you should ask your provider if their service still works with Netflix as the majority don’t.

It’s cunning, it’s sneaky and has caused much sadness among movie fans across the world, I’m referring to Netflix suddenly blocking virtually every single VPN and proxy service. Slowly it’s become harder and harder to find a reliable proxy service to access the wonders of USA Netflix and last month became pretty much impossible. However on the internet it’s very difficult to block everyone and when the secret is out, you’re back to square one.

How to Bypass the Netflix Block

Well first it’s important to understand the method, how does Netflix block VPNs is the question but also the solution too. In fact it’s actually not as sophisticated as you might have thought, but it’s definitely pretty effective.

Netflix had previously followed the standard route of big media company wanting to block people like you and me trying to get round their region locks so they could watch the best movies with their NETFLIX SUBSCRIPTION. This was a combination of picking out the high profile VPNs – the services who advertise on social media and PPC plus manual identification of IP addresses with multiple streams. It works to an extent but is very time consuming and the VPN/proxy services simply switch addresses when required so that it becomes a constant battle.

However instead of pursuing this tactic indefinitely, Netflix chose another option and decided to target the classification as well as the location of the IP address. They simply blocked all ‘commercial’ classified IP addresses – which meant that anyone using an address held by a commercial organisation would not be able to access Netflix wherever they happened to be.

So every standard residential IP address would be allowed through but all the addresses from commercial enterprises were blocked across the board. These included virtually every data center too so all the VPN suddenly stopped working almost overnight. The only addresses that now worked were the ones classified as residential which are mostly allocated through ISPs directly to home users.

For a VPN service to continue to work with Netflix in any capacity it needed access to these residential IP addresses. Without these addresses it is impossible to bypass the Netflix block at at all. Fortunately a couple of companies seem to have gained access to these and introduced them into their server infrastructure effectively regaining access – one of them is Identity Cloaker which has enabled UK and USA residential IP addresses for Netflix users only.